Shifters and Verbal Categories

More documents

Recommendations

Info

388 MEANING IN LANGUAGE: GRAMMATICAL AND LEXICA1 Shifirrs and Vrrhal Cate,qories 389 Fido, but they do not share any property of "Fidone\s." Also thc indefinite pronoun corresponding to names such as Jean. Jan, Joan. Junethe "what's-her-name" or "what-do-you-call-her" or "how-d'ye-callherw-includes a patent reference to the code. MIC) A message referring to the code is in logic termed an AUTONY- MOUS mode of speech.' When we say, The pup is u ~c*insome anitncrl or The pup is rvhlmpering, the word pup designates a young dog, whereas in such sentences as "Pup" is a nom which means ci young dog or. more briefly, "Pup" means a young dog or "Pup" is u monosyllable, the word pup-one may state with Carnap (1937)-is used as its own designation. Any elucidating interpretation of words and sentences-whether intralingual (circumlocutions, synonyms) or interlingual (translation)-is a message referring to the code. Such a hypostasis-as Bloomfield (1933: 148) pointed out-"is closely related to quotation, the repetition of speech," and it plays a vital role in the acquisition and use of language. CIM) Any linguistic code contains a particular class of grammatical units which Jespersen (1922b) labeled SHIFTERS: the general meaning of a shifter cannot be defined without a reference to the message. Their semiotic nature was discussed by Burks (1949) in his study on Peirce's classification of signs into symbols, indices, and icons. According to Peirce, a symbol (for example the English word red) is associated with the represented object by a conventional rule, while an index (such as the act of pointing) is in existential relation with the object it represents. Shifters combine both functions and belong therefore to the class of INDEXICAL SYMBOLS. AS a striking example Burks cites the personal pronoun. I means the person uttering I. Thus on one hand, the sign I cannot represent its object without being associated with the latter "by a conventional rule," and in different codes the same meaning is assigned to different sequences such as I, ego, ich, and ja: consequently I is a symbol. On the other hand, the sign I cannot represent its object without "being in existential relation" with this object: the word I des- ignating the utterer is existentially related to his utterance and hence functions as an index (see Benveniste 1956). The peculiarity of the personal pronoun and other shifters was often believed to consist in the lack of a single, constant, general meaning. Husserl (1913): "The word 'I' designates a different person in each case and it does this always by means of a new meaning." For this alleged multiplicity of contextual meanings, shifters in contradistinction to symbols were treated as mere indices (Buhler 1934). Every shifter, however, possesses its own general meaning. Thus I means the addresser (and you, the addressee) of the message to which it belongs. For Bertrand Russell, shifters, or in his terms "egocentric particulars," are defined by the fact that they never apply to more than one thing at a time. This. hpwever, is common to all the syncategorematic terms For example the con.iunction twt each time expresses ;in adversative relation between two stated concepts and not the generic idea of contrariety. In fact, shifters are distinguished from all other constituents of the linguistic code solely by their compulsory reference to the given message. The indexical symbols. and in particular the personal pronouns. which the Humboldtian tradition conceives of as the most elementary and primitive stratum of language, are. on the contrary. a complex category where code and message overl;rp. Therefore pronouns belong to the late acquisitions in child language and to the early losses in aphasia. If we observe that even linguistic scientists had difficulties in defining the general meaning of the term i (or you), which signifies the same intermittent function of different subjects, it is quite obvious that the child who has learned to identify himself with his proper name will not easily become accustomed to such alienable terms as the personal pronouns: he may be afraid of speaking of himself in the first person while being called yo11 by his interlocutors. Sometimes he attempts to redistribute these appellations. For instance, he tries to monopolize the first person pronoun: "Don't dare call yourself I. Only I am I, and you are only you." Or he uses indiscriminately either I or you both for the addresser and the addressee so that this pronoun means any participant of the given dialogue. Or finally I is so rigorously substituted by the child for his proper name that he readily names any person of his surroundings but stubbornly refuses to utter his own name: the name has for its little bearer only a vocative meaning, opposed to the nominative functiqn of I. This attitude may persevere as an infantile survival. Thus Guy de Maupassant confessed that his name sounded quite strange to him when pronounced by himself. The refusal to utter one's own name may become a social custom. Zelenin (1930) notes that in the Samoyed society the name was taboo for its carrier. Jim told me "Jicksks" tneans "movies." This brief utterance includes all four types of duplex structures: reported speech (MIM), the autonymous form of speech (MIC), a proper name (CIC), and shifters (CIM), namely the first-person pronoun and the preterit, signaling an event prior to the delivery of the message. In language and in the use of language, duplicity plays a cardinal role. In particular, the classification of grammatical, and especially verbal, categories requires a consistent discrimination of shifters. Attempt to Classify. Verbal Categories In order to classify the verbal categories two basic distinctions are to be observed:
390 MEANING IN LANGUAGE: GRAMMATICAL AND LEXICAL. 1. speech itself (0, and its topic, the narrated matter ("); 2. the event itself (E). and any of its participants (P), whether "performer" or "undergoer." Consequently four items are to be distinguished: a narrated event (En), a speech event (Es), a participant of the narrated event (Pn), and a participant of the speech event (P'), whether addresser or addressee. Any verb is concerned with a narrated event. Verbal categories may be subdivided into those which do and those which do not involve the participants of the event. Categories involving the participants may characterize either the participants themselves (Pn) or their relation to the narrated event (PnEn). Categories abstracting from the participants characterize either the narrated event itself (En) or its relation to another narrated event (EnEn). For categories characterizing only one narrated item-either the event (En) itself or its participants (Pn) themselves-the term DESIGNATORS will be used, while those categories which characterize a narrated item (En or Pn) with respect to another narrated item (EnEn or PnEn) will be termed CONNECTORS. I Designators indicate either the quality or the quantity of the narrated item and may be termed QUALIFIERS and QUANTIFIERS respectively. Both designators and connectors may characterize the narrated event (procPs de I'e'nonce') and/or its participants either without or with reference to the speech event (proces de l'e'nonciation) (.../Es) or its participants (...IPS). Categories implying such a reference are to be termed SHIFTERS; those without such a reference are NONSHIFTERS. With regard to these basic dichotomies any generic verbal category can be defined. Pn) Among categories involving the participants of the narrated event, GENDER and NUMBER characterize the participants themselves without reference to the speech event-gender qualifies, and number quantifies the participants. In Algonquian, for example, verbal forms indicate whether the performer, on the one hand, and the undergoer, on the other, are animate or inanimate (Bloomfield 1946); and the singleness, duality, or multiplicity of performers as well as undergoers is expressed in Koryak conjugation (Bogoraz 1922). Pn/P" PERSON characterizes the participants of the narrated event with reference to the participants of the speech event. Thus first person signals the identity of a participant of the narrated event with the performer of the speech event, and the second person, the identity with the actual or potential undergoer of the speech event. En) STATUS and ASPECT characterize the narrated event itself without involving its participants and without reference to the speech event. Status (in Whorf's terminology) defines the logical quality of the event. Shifters crrrd Verbal Categories 391 For example in Gilyak, the affirmative, presumptive. negative. interrogative, and negative-interrogative statuses are expressed by special verbal forms (Krejnovii: 1934). In English the assertive status uses the "do"- combinations which in certain conditions are optional for an affirmative assertion but compulsory for a negative or questioned assertion. Aspect quantifies the narrated event. EnE" TENSE characterizes the narrated event with reference to the speech event. Thus the preterit informs us that the narrated event is anterior to the speech event. YEn) VOICE characterizes the relation between the narrated event and its participants without reference to the speech event or to the speaker. PnEn/P" MOOD characterizes the relation between the narrated event and its participants with reference to the participants of the speech event: in Vinogradov's formulation, this category "reflects the speaker's view of the character of the connection between the action and the actor or the goal" (1947). EnEn) There is no standardized name for this category; such labels as "relative tense" cover only one of its varieties. Bloomfield's (1946) term "order" or rather its Greek model "taxis" seems to be the most appro- priate. TAXIS characterizes the narrated event in relation to another narrated event and without reference to the speech event, thus Gilyak dis- tinguishes three kinds of independent taxis-one requires, one admits, and one excludes a dependent taxis, and the dependent taxes express various relationships with the independent verb-simultaneity, ante- Table 23.1 Verbal categories Reference Participant involved to narrated item Designator Connector Nonshifter Qualifier: Gender, Voice Quantifier: Number Shifter Person Mood Table 23.2 Shifters and nonshifters -- Participant not involved Designator Connector Qualifier: Status, Taxis Quantifier: Aspect Tense Evidential Reference to Participant involved Participant not involved narrated item Designator Connector Designator Connector Nonshifter Pn PnEn En EnEn Shifter PnIPs PnEn/Ps EnIEs EnEns/Es
Page 1: Shifters and Verbal Categories EDIT

Shifters and Verbal Categories

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?